Games of chance have been enjoyed by people for thousands of years and have enjoyed increased and widespread popularity in recent times. As with most forms of entertainment, players enjoy playing a wide variety of games and new games. Playing new games adds to the excitement of “gaming.” As is well known in the art and as used herein, the term “gaming” and “gaming devices” are used to indicate that some form of wagering is involved, and that players must make wagers of value, whether actual currency or some equivalent of value, e.g., token or credit.
One popular game of chance is the slot machine. Conventionally, a slot machine is configured for a player to wager something of value, e.g., currency, house token, established credit or other representation of currency or credit. After the wager has been made, the player activates the slot machine to cause a random event to occur. The player wagers that particular random events will occur that will return value to the player. A standard device causes a plurality of reels to spin and ultimately stop, displaying a random combination of some form of indicia, for example, numbers or symbols. If this display contains one of a preselected plurality of winning combinations, the machine releases money into a payout chute or increments a credit meter by the amount won by the player. For example, if a player initially wagered two coins of a specific denomination and that player achieved a payout, that player may receive the same number or multiples of the wager amount in coins of the same denomination as wagered.
There are many different formats for generating the random display of events that can occur to determine payouts in wagering devices. The standard or original format was the use of three reels with symbols distributed over the face of the wheel. When the three reels were spun, they would eventually each stop in turn, displaying a combination of three symbols (e.g., with three wheels and the use of a single payout line as a row in the middle of the area where the symbols are displayed.) By appropriately distributing and varying the symbols on each of the reels, the random occurrence of predetermined winning combinations can be provided in mathematically predetermined probabilities. By clearly providing for specific probabilities for each of the preselected winning outcomes, precise odds that would control the amount of the payout for any particular combination and the percentage return on wagers for the house could be readily controlled.
Other formats of gaming apparatus that have developed in a progression from the pure slot machine with three reels have dramatically increased with the development of video gaming apparatus. Rather than have only mechanical elements such as wheels or reels that turn and stop to randomly display symbols, video gaming apparatus and the rapidly increasing sophistication in hardware and software have enabled an explosion of new and exciting gaming apparatus. The earlier video apparatus merely imitated or simulated the mechanical slot games in the belief that players would want to play only the same games. Early video games therefore were simulated slot machines. The use of video gaming apparatus to play new games such as draw poker and Keno broke the ground for the realization that there were many untapped formats for gaming apparatus. Now casinos may have hundreds of different types of gaming apparatus with an equal number of significant differences in play. The apparatus may vary from traditional three reel slot machines with a single payout line, video simulations of three reel video slot machines, to five reel, five column simulated slot machines with a choice of twenty or more distinct pay lines, including randomly placed lines, scatter pays, or single image payouts. In addition to the variation in formats for the play of games, bonus plays, bonus awards, and progressive jackpots have been introduced with great success. The bonuses may be associated with the play of games that are quite distinct from the play of the original game, such as the video display of a horse race with bets on the individual horses randomly assigned to players that qualify for a bonus, the spinning of a random wheel with fixed amounts of a bonus payout on the wheel (or simulation thereof), or attempting to select a random card that is of higher value than a card exposed on behalf of a virtual dealer.
Examples of such gaming apparatus with a distinct bonus feature includes U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,823,874; 5,848,932; 5,836,041; U.K. Patent Nos. 2 201 821 A; 2 202 984 A; and 2 072 395A; and German Patent DE 40 14 477 A1. Each of these patents differ in fairly subtle ways as to the manner in which the bonus round is played. British patent 2 201 821 A and DE 37 00 861 A1 describe a gaming apparatus in which after a winning outcome is first achieved in a reel-type gaming segment, a second segment is engaged to determine the amount of money or extra games awarded. The second segment gaming play involves a spinning wheel with awards listed thereon (e.g., the number of coins or number of extra plays) and a spinning arrow that will point to segments of the wheel with the values of the awards thereon. A player will press a stop button and the arrow will point to one of the values. The specification indicates both that there is a level of skill possibly involved in the stopping of the wheel and the arrow(s), and also that an associated computer operates the random selection of the rotatable numbers and determines the results in the additional winning game, which indicates some level of random selection in the second gaming segment, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,823,874 and 5,848,932 describe a gaming device comprising: a first, standard gaming unit for displaying a randomly selected combination of indicia, said displayed indicia selected from the group consisting of reels, indicia of reels, indicia of playing cards, and combinations thereof; means for generating at least one signal corresponding to at least one select display of indicia by said first, standard gaming unit; means for providing at least one discernible indicia of a mechanical bonus indicator, said discernible indicia indicating at least one of a plurality of possible bonuses, wherein said providing means is operatively connected to said first, standard gaming unit and becomes actuatable in response to said signal. In effect, the second gaming event simulates a mechanical bonus indicator such as a roulette wheel or wheel with a pointing element.
A video terminal is another form of gaming device. Video terminals operate in the same manner as conventional slot or video machines except that a redemption ticket is issued rather than an immediate payout being dispensed.
The vast array of electronic video gaming apparatus that is commercially available is not standardized within the industry or necessarily even within the commercial line of apparatus available from a single manufacturer. One of the reasons for this lack of uniformity or standardization is the fact that the operating systems that have been used to date in the industry are primitive. As a result, the programmer must often create code for each and every function performed by each individual apparatus. To date, no manufacturer is known to have been successful in creating a universal operating system for converting existing equipment (that includes features such as reusable modules of code) at least in part because of the limitations in utility and compatibility of the operating systems in use. When new games are created, new hardware and software is typically created from the ground up.
At least one attempt has been made to create a universal gaming engine that segregates the code associated with random number generation and algorithms applied to the random number string from the balance of the code. Carlson U.S. Pat. No. 5,707,286 describes such a device. This patentee recognized that modular code would be beneficial, but only contemplated making the RNG and transfer algorithms modular.
The lack of a standard operating system has contributed to maintaining an artificially high price for the systems in the market. The use of unique hardware interfaces in the various manufactured video gaming systems is a contributing factor. The different hardware, the different access codes, the different pin couplings, the different harnesses for coupling of pins, the different functions provided from the various pins, and the other various and different configurations within the systems has prevented any standard from developing within the technical field. This is advantageous to the apparatus manufacturer, because the games for each system are provided exclusively by a single manufacturer, and the entire systems can be readily obsoleted, so that the market will have to purchase a complete unit rather than merely replacement software. Also, competitors cannot easily provide a single game that can be played on different hardware. A solution to this problem is presented in our co-pending application for Video Gaming Apparatus for Wagering with Universal Computerized Controller and I/O Interface for Unique Architecture, assigned Ser. No. 09/405,921, and filed Sep. 24, 1999, the disclosure that is incorporated herein by reference.
The invention of computerized gaming systems that include a common or universal video wagering game controller that can be installed in a broad range of video gaming apparatus without substantial modification to the game controller has made possible the standardization of many components and of corresponding gaming software within gaming systems. Such systems desirably will have functions and features that are specifically tailored to the unique demands of supporting a variety of games and gaming apparatus types, and will do so in a manner that is efficient, secure, and cost-effective.
In addition to making communication between a universal operating system and non-standard machine devices such as coin hoppers, monitors, bill validators and the like possible, it would be desirable to provide security features that enable the operating system to verify that game code and other data has not changed during operation.
Alcorn et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,643,086 describes a gaming system that is capable of authenticating an application or game program stored on a mass media device such as a CD-ROM, RAM, ROM or other device using hashing and encryption techniques. The mass storage device may be located in the gaming machine, or may be external to the gaming machine. This verification technique therefore will not detect any changes that occur in the code that is executing because it tests the code residing in mass storage prior to loading into RAM. The authenticating system relies on the use of a digital signature and suggests hashing of the entire data set during the encryption and decryption process. See also, Alcorn et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,106,396 and Alcorn et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,149,522.
In particular, U.S. Pat. No. 6,149,522 describes a method for preparing a casino game data set for authentication that, in its broadest concept, requires a) providing a data set for a casino game, b) computing a primary abbreviated bit string that is unique to the data set, c) encrypting the unique abbreviated bit string data set to provide a signature, and d) storing the casino data set and the signature.
The patent also describes a method for authentication of a casino game data set that consists of a) decrypting the signature generated during the preparation of the game data set, b) computing a second abbreviated bit string from the data set and c) comparing the results.
What is desired by the present inventors is an architecture and method providing a gaming-specific platform that i) features secure storage and verification of game code and other data, ii) provides the ability to securely change game code on computerized wagering gaming system, and iii) has the ability to verify that the code has not changed during operation of the gaming machine.
It is further desired by the inventors that the game program code be identifiable as certified or approved, such as by the Nevada Gaming Regulations Commission or other regulatory agency.